Susan Hou, MD, who altruistically donated a kidney to one of her patients and later received a lung transplant, was among the organ transplant patients who were honored April 21 during Loyola University Medical Center's 25th annual Candle-lighting Ceremony.

Twelve years to the day after her donation, Dr. Hou herself became an organ transplant patient, receiving a donated lung to treat a life-threatening pulmonary disease.

Dr. Hou, who lives in River Forest, Illinois, is believed to be the only transplant physician in history both to donate an organ and receive an organ transplant.

"Dr. Hou was an especially deserving patient," said Loyola lung transplant specialist Daniel Dilling, MD. "Was it luck, fate, or the guidance of a higher power that returned the favor she had given so generously?" Continue reading